Originally Posted by
Hammersmith
He's actually not wrong with this. It's not like basketball where lots of conferences get at-large bids outside the P5.
Here are the list of 2019, non-P5, at-large bids by conference:
American - 2
Mountain West - 1
Missouri Valley - 1
That's it. 32 at-large bids last year, and 28 of them went to the P5.
2018 was a little better:
American - 3
Big West - 1
Sun Belt - 1
Colonial - 1
2017
C-USA - 2
Sun Belt - 1
Mountain West - 1
2016
American - 2
Sun Belt - 1
Big West- 1
2015
Sun Belt - 1
Colonial - 1
Mountain West - 1
C-USA - 1
So in the last five years, no non-P5 conference has had multiple bids every year. Only the Sun Belt went 4/5. MWC & AAC went 3/5. Overall, four non-P5 at-large bids was the norm, with six in 2018 being the outlier.
Just something to think about.